Projects are expected to demonstrate credible commercial and technical paths that are able to satisfy all the following points:

• Energy storage system cost (CAPEX) lower than 50 €/kWh;
• Projected lifetime of 20 years with minimised self-discharge in operating and ambient conditions typical of the selected application;
• Minimum round-trip efficiency of 50% at energy storage system (AC) level and 75% at cell level;
• Large-scale deployment in the long term of reliable materials supply and manufacturing of cell or reaction stack.

Projects are expected to focus on technologies that are presently at a low Technology Readiness Level. Lithium-ion, vanadium-based redox flow, sodium-ion using liquid electrolyte, molten sodium-sulphur and other commercialised technologies are out of scope of this topic.

Taking the above into account, the scope of the topic is technology neutral. In case the following battery chemistries or configurations are chosen, the following points must be addressed:

• For metal-air chemistries: reduce sensitivity to impurities of gases;
• For multivalent chemistries: develop electrolytes with reduced corrosivity and improved compatibility with other cell components and housing;
• For materials for redox flow chemistries: develop redox couples with minimised share of Critical Raw Materials (CRM)[1];
• For Potassium batteries: address rate performance limitations due to potassium ion diffusivity and electrolyte decomposition due to high K+/K redox.

Projects are encouraged to implement calibrated and validated computational models and/or (generative) artificial intelligence methods for materials discovery and cell design.

Whenever the expected exploitation of project results entails developing, creating, manufacturing and marketing a product or process, or in creating and providing a service, the plan for the exploitation and dissemination of results must include a strategy for such exploitation. The exploitation plans should include preliminary plans for scalability, commercialisation, and deployment (feasibility study, business plan).

Proposals could consider the involvement of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)[4] whose contribution could consist of performing experimental research on battery performance and/or safety. For further information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the projects, please, search for additional publicly available information on the JRC’s website (EU Science Hub) on the NCP portal, or request specific information from the JRC (JRC-NCP-Network@ec.europa.eu)

JRC shall assure that all the other applicants receive the same information on the JRC’s possible contribution to the project (e.g., via the topic-specific FAQs under the Funding and Tenders Portal).

Projects are expected to collaborate and contribute to the activities of the Coordination and Support Action defined under the topic HORIZON-CL5-2025-D2-02-06.

To strengthen the European battery ecosystem, projects are expected to use materials, products and equipment produced in EU Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe, unless it is demonstrated that no valid option exists. The procurement strategies should be described in the proposal, especially and to the furthest extent possible the place of production of the elements.